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Archeological Zone

Designation Report
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Historic Sites and Districts
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Archeological Zones
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Miami River Rapids
Archeological Zone

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Historical Museum of Southern Florida

 

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::  Miami River Rapids Archeological Zone
2810-2916 NW South River Drive
Dates of Site: Tequesta Camp,A.D. 1400-1500; Ferguson Mill and Homestead, ca. 1845-1852
Date Designated: 1990

a. Historic Sketch Map of the Falls of the Miami River drawn by F. H. Gerdes, 1849.

This archeological zone contains the remains of a pre-Columbian Tequesta camp or village and, on top of this, the ruins of the nineteenth-century Ferguson starch mill and homestead. These two settlements were located at the original rapids of the North Fork of the Miami River. Evidence of the Tequesta settlement at this site includes pottery sherds, stone flakes from the production of tools, and animal bones. Later, in the mid-nineteenth century, George Washington Ferguson and Thomas Jefferson Ferguson established their mill and homestead at this location. The mill employed 25 people and was the largest commercial site in Dade County prior to the Civil War. “Ferguson's Florida Arrow Root” was sold throughout the United States until the mill was abandoned due to hostilities resulting from the Third Seminole War.

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